Poor weather and a lower-than-expected turnout didn't at all affect the approval of a $64,754,404 TUFSD school budget on Tuesday.
"Turnout was a little lower than expected, but other than that it was a positive day," said Nelly Valentin, Secretary to Superintendent/District Clerk.
Local voters in the villages approved the budget by a vote of 747 to 451.
The budget in a 2.71 percent tax increase. Due to the way the burden is split between the two villages, there would be a 3.65 percent tax increase in Tarrytown and a 1.44 percent increase in Sleepy Hollow.
For the Board of Education race, incumbent trustees Sheila Conklin and Katharine Swibold held the day. Newcomer Ken Torosian congratulated incumbents on their victory at the School District's central offices on Tuesday night, but noted he would continue to make his voice heard.
"We did this campaign in three weeks, and there are a lot of people who believe in the message. I'm going to keep coming here and delivering it," Torosian said.
Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns
2011-2012 Budget
Yes No Sleepy Hollow 324 209 Tarrytown 423 242 Total 747 451Increasing Busing Distance for Washington Irving School
Yes No Sleepy Hollow 368
142
Tarrytown 482
177
Total 850
319
Purchase of Buses for the School District
Yes No Sleepy Hollow 333
174
Tarrytown 456
202
Total 789
376
Board of Education Trustees
Sheila Conklin Sleepy Hollow 254 Tarrytown372 Total 626 Katharine Swibold
Sleepy Hollow 283 Tarrytown 370 Total 653 Ken Torosian
Sleepy Hollow 289 Tarrytown 248 Total 537
Pocantico Hills Central School District
2011-2012 Budget
Yes - 234
No - 115
Bus Proposition
Yes - 216
No - 121
Board of Education Trustees
John Conrad - 306
Florence McCue - 83
Joan Waters Cusanelli - 277
Katherine Yu - 64
Don't you have to read and write the English language to pass a citizenship test? It's a rhetorical question, you do. How about a vote for ENGLISH AS THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Maybe we could a better voter turnout. I don't know why my family bothered to learn English, they should just waited for America to get lazy and apathetic.
I went way to fast. How embarrassing for me.
"You are making firefighters look ignorant and intolerant", I am? How is it ignorant to understand the history of immigration and assimilation into American society? How is it intolerant to expect the same behavior from today's immigrants and as from the millions who came before? I am "deeply concerned" that you don't see what is happening to us as a society. When more and more people don't learn the language, I hope you are tolerant enough to learn their language so that you can continue to live here. I also hope you are not ignorant enough to think that we should expect them to become a part of society? But what do I know.
That being said, it is incredibly disturbing that our nation coddles our populace (immigrants as well as people born here) and not only allows but promotes their not learning the English language. Despite there being no Constitutional amendment nor US code stating that English is our official language, our history is clear on this issue in that our Constitution, amendments, Declaration of Independance, codes, regulations and our entire US history are based on the English language. Furthermore, English is a language used throughout the world for trade, finance and technology and not learning it puts a person at an immediate disadvantage. Unless immigrants and their children want to stay working as day laborers or in other lower paying jobs, this process must stop. How can someone who does not appreciate the importance of learning English make informed decisions about our (and their) childrens education especially when, more often than not, they do not make sure that their own children are learning the language properly and exceed in their education? This issue is at the root of why our educational system is currently in such shambles and we can't keep our budgets in check.
Our current budgets and those that have long come before it in our villages, Westchester, NY State and the whole country are based on an attempt to make cuts from the existing budgets which are themselves based on flawed existing processes. These cuts are akin to trying to trim the fat from the fattiest piece of meat received from a shady butcher who himself gets all his meat from a distributor selling only fatty and overfed cattle. Sure it is tasty but it certainly will not be healthy in the long run, year after year.... What we need to do is go to the source and grow the cattle (i.e. the system) in a way that avoids the need to make too many cuts. How to do this? I have no answer but I do know that the current method is not working and simply accepting this as the status quo will eventually end the same way that eating nothing but overly fat meat would do to your health.......